How to identify a scammer

I'm tired of being scammed by people. So I learned to recognize a scammer. I thought other people might want some help with that...

I'm a bit annoyed that somebody would actually try this on me. I know some of you can easily recognize a scam right off the bat, but some aren't so lucky. To help prevent another unfortunate accident, I will present you with this. Just for those of you who may not have figured this out, I have not fallen for a scam yet, and especially not for this poorly written one. 

So I got this message (un-bolded) this morning from somebody on here: 

How are you and your Family? I know you will be shock to come across my email. However, it is my sincere pleasure at this moment to exhibit my total trust bestowed on you in accordance of which I am fully convinced that you will really be of immense assistance to my present predicament as my business associates. Well, i hope my proposal to you will be given proper attention despite the fact we have not known each other. But i summon courage to introduce myself to you through this medium.I am Mr koffi from Bgfl bank Côte d'Ivoire we need to claim the sum of 9.8 Million British Pounds by our late investor who i presume to be your relative because of the similarities in your names, The reason i contacted you is to nominate you as the heir to the trust, you claim the money legally and legitimately as a collateral heir then we share it equally. This project is risk and hitch-free as Most of these investors are brokerage accounts holders, they operates, held or titled their accounts in names of entities that are exempt from capital lost and steadily holding a profitable stock trades structure, they mostly use numbers, pin and code to operate their account for the avoidance of scrutiny as they follow their investment with portfolio monitoring tools to track their account's gains and losses so when they die their investment die with them as mostly their families know not about the investment. Momentarily, all that needs to be done is for you to make contact with the bank to make simple inquiry about the statue of the account, Of course I will guide and guard you on how to do this, and with my position here I will see to it that your inquiry and application for claim is giving a swift attention and favorable response.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this mail and let me know if you have any question Remain bless.([email protected]) waiting for your reply.''

It's clearly a scam, for many reasons. 

1) First of all, not everybody lives in Britain. If they really were a true bank associate, they would have figured out by now to contain at least the American conversion of the currency, and possibly another form of popular currency. 

2) A true bank associate would know how to capitalize I's and know proper grammar. "I know you will be shock to come across my email." Seriously? It's shocked, and it's a message, not an email. 

3)"This project is risk and hitch-free as Most of these investors are brokerage accounts holders, they operates, held or titled their accounts in names of entities that are exempt from capital lost and steadily holding a profitable stock trades structure, they mostly use numbers, pin and code to operate their account for the avoidance of scrutiny as they follow their investment with portfolio monitoring tools to track their account's gains and losses so when they die their investment die with them as mostly their families know not about the investment." This is a run-on sentence, these "investors" are geniuses if they figured out a way to make their investments die with them and are lying by using these "identities" exempt from capital loss. 

4) "The reason i contacted you is to nominate you as the heir to the trust, you claim the money legally and legitimately as a collateral heir then we share it equally." First of all, if I claim the money legally and legitimately, then I shouldn't have to share the money with anybody. 

5) "we need to claim the sum of 9.8 Million British Pounds by our late investor who i presume to be your relative because of the similarities in your names," First of all, what is the name of this relative, and how do you know my own name? I do not believe my name is anywhere on this site. Second of all, nobody in my family who is alive today is an investor, and if there is somebody in my family like that, then why would I of all people be getting the money? 

6) This was most likely copied from somewhere else based on the quotation marks at the end. 

7) "Please acknowledge the receipt of this mail and let me know if you have any question Remain bless." The receipt? I believe that is the wrong word for this situation. 

8) "I am Mr koffi from Bgfl bank Côte d'Ivoire" Côte d'Ivoire is in South Africa. Why would I want to send my "British pounds" to somebody I don't even know in South Africa and have to deal with the currency exchange and stuff. 

9) A quick Google search of the email address yielded this: https://www.google.com/search?num=30&newwindow=1&safe=strict&biw=1842&bih=995&q=koffi.abraham3000%40gmail.com&oq=koffi.abraham3000%40gmail.com&gs_l=serp.3...34226.34226.0.36160.1.1.0.0.0.0.118.118.0j1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.0.0.Vo1sQQ5m0Hs For those of you too lazy to click the link, it's a whole bunch of sites warning about scams. Searching for Mr koffi from the bgfl bank blah blah blah yeild the Koffi scam. Apparently, Mr Koffi is a pretty well known scammer. I'm honored to have received a message from him... 

My advice: If you ever receive a message where, right off the bat, the person gives you an email or phone number, go google it. It's most likely a scam. Then, flag/report the person and block them. Only after a LONG time (a year or so) should you consider the possibility of contacting a person through an email or phone number. Even then, you should do a Google search of the information first, just to be safe. 

Reviews

[KittyKatgirl]

I am sorry that some a******s decided to use you as their full of s**t useless scams. *hugs* It is really good of you to bring this out there, so that people who might not recognise a scam when they see it are warned. I am using a school laptop for a class so I will send a read request to my friends.

[Silent Wolf]

Thank you. *hugs* I do hope that people don't fall for it, but I know they do.

[Rose Jaeger Kaneki]

I am so sorry for what happened to you. *hugs*
this is very nice of you to bring it out and warn people of this.

[Chidoriflower]

Ugh I hate when this happens! I'm always on the look out for this...thank you for sharing this is very helpful. :)

[MandaBear]

I hate that people think they can (and most do) get away with doing this. It's really horrible to know there are people out there that do fall for this. They are innocent victims to a corrupt system. We as a whole should be careful and really read the messages being sent out. I am sorry some jerk thought he was smart enough to think he could trick you. Now we all will know and hopefully learn to read the messages we get and take caution very seriously.